Ukraine parliament fires prime minister

Cabinet also ousted as lawmakers protest Russian gas deal

January 11, 2006|By Alex Rodriguez, Tribune foreign correspondent

MOSCOW — Ukraine's parliament fired the country's prime minister and Cabinet on Tuesday to protest the government's handling of the recent gas price war with Russia, a move experts said was an attempt to weaken the beleaguered Orange Revolution bloc ahead of crucial legislative elections this spring.

Parliament ordered Prime Minister Yuri Yekhanurov and his Cabinet to stay on until a new Cabinet can be formed. President Viktor Yushchenko denounced the move as unconstitutional and said he would challenge it in court.

But parliament's 250-50 vote sent a strong signal that the political clout Yushchenko amassed after his ascent to power during 2004's Orange Revolution was eroding rapidly at the worst possible time--with pivotal parliamentary elections slated for March 26.

Those elections will determine whether Yushchenko will have the legislative backing he needs to forge ahead with his pro-West agenda of drawing Ukraine closer to the European Union and NATO, and further away from the Kremlin's influence.

A recent change in Ukraine's Constitution also will give the newly elected parliament more authority, and a poor showing by Yushchenko's Our Ukraine bloc in the election could cripple Yushchenko's presidency.

Yushchenko appointed Yekhanurov as prime minister in September after he fired Yulia Tymoshenko, the fiery opposition leader who teamed with Yushchenko to rally thousands of Ukrainians against pro-Kremlin candidate Viktor Yanukovych's victory in the 2004 presidential election. The movement, known as the Orange Revolution, forced an election rerun that Yushchenko won handily.

Tymoshenko's dismissal marked a low point in Yushchenko's presidency, coming amid a firestorm of competing accusations of corruption between factions in the president's circle of advisers. Since then, Tymoshenko has been building her own coalition in hopes of regaining power in the March election.

Lawmakers with Tymoshenko's bloc teamed with parliament members loyal to Yanukovych to vote for Yekhanurov's firing Tuesday. They cited Ukraine's wrangling with Russia over natural gas prices as the reason for the government's dismissal.

Ukraine's refusal to abide by Russia's fourfold price increase for gas it sends to Ukraine prompted Moscow to cut off gas supplies to its western neighbor Jan. 1. The crisis ended three days later when Ukraine agreed to a complex pricing scheme that doubled gas prices instead of quadrupling them.

Lawmakers who voted for Yekhanurov's dismissal said the deal the government reached will deliver a stiff blow to Ukraine's economy--particularly the country's chemicals and metals industries that are heavily reliant on natural gas.

"The Cabinet and the president should have resigned on their own after this gas deal with Russia," said Oleg Tsaryov, a lawmaker with Yanukovych's Party of Regions. "The country's economy is on the decline, and we see no prospects for improvement."

Analysts said they believe parliament has the authority to dismiss the prime minister and his Cabinet but cannot appoint replacements. However, as a result of a change in the constitution that took effect Jan. 1, the parliament elected March 26 will have the power to appoint the prime minister.

Appearing Tuesday in Kazakhstan for Kazakh leader Nursultan Nazarbayev's inauguration, Yushchenko doubted the legality of the move. "Time will show that this decision is not constitutional," he said.

Yushchenko allies dismissed parliament's move as a political ploy aimed solely at weakening the president's chances of coming out ahead in the March election.

"If there hadn't been a gas crisis, they would have found some other reason to dismiss the government," said Yuri Artyomenko, a lawmaker with Yushchenko's Our Ukraine Party.

Analysts agreed, but they added that the ploy could succeed. Yushchenko's popularity has been pummeled by his split with Tymoshenko and by concerns of dramatic increases in gas bills. Current polls have Yanukovych's coalition ahead of both Tymoshenko's and Yushchenko's.

"This is a serious crisis for Yushchenko--a crisis that could weaken his position in the future parliament," said Mikhail Pogrebinsky, a Kiev-based political analyst.

"It means there are some powerful forces that can oppose Yushchenko and create serious problems for his agenda."